Data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, 1999 to 2008, were used to assess the effects of advancing age on in-hospital case fatality rate of patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE) stratified according to stability. Among adults, all-cause case fatality was affected more by advancing age (1.8 deaths/10 years of age) than death attributable to PE (0.7 deaths/10 years of age). All-cause case fatality rate was affected more by advancing age in unstable adults than in stable adults (5.3 deaths/10 years of age vs 1.7 deaths/10 years of age). Case fatality rate attributable to PE was also affected more by advancing age in unstable adults than in stable adults (4.1 deaths/10 years of age vs 0.6 deaths/10 years of age). Limited data suggest that the case fatality rate of children was comparable to that of the elderly individuals. These results may influence the prognostic value of risk assessment tools for patients with PE.
Keywords: age; case fatality rate; mortality; pulmonary embolism; venous thromboembolism.